Former Tea police chief sued in murder case

He's accused of withholding evidence in Wyoming in 1984

Nov. 13, 2012

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The former Tea police chief, who resigned without public explanation last week, is being sued. He is accused of withholding evidence in a Wyoming murder case that eventually led to a man’s conviction.

Brian Ketterhagen, 51, was sued last month in U.S. District Court in Wyoming regarding allegations surrounding his involvement in a cold case investigation of the 1984 shooting of Lisa Ehlers in Jackson, Wyo.

Troy Willoughby was convicted of her murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2010. He was granted a second jury trial after it was revealed that evidence of an alibi had been withheld by investigators, including Ketterhagen and two other investigators.

The second jury acquitted Willoughby in February.

By then, Ketterhagen had moved to Tea and taken a job as police chief. At least one official in Tea said news of the lawsuit was a surprise. Joe Weis, a City Council member in Tea, said he wasn’t aware of the legal action in Wyoming until “late last week.”

It is unclear whether the lawsuit against Ketterhagen had any hand in his decision to resign. The chief and an officer James Klimple both quit Nov. 5 following a closed executive session.

The council did a background check on Ketterhagen and checked references at the time of his hiring, Weis said, and nothing unusual turned up.

“This was a recent development,” Weis said.

The Wyoming lawsuit says Sublette County Captain Lance Gehlhausen taped conversations with Ketterhagen, Sublette County attorney investigator Randall Hanson and county deputy Sarah Brew in 2009 that revealed their intent to cover up Willoughby’s alibi.

Willoughby became a suspect in the murder after a friend came forward and claimed he had seen him shoot Ehlers.

The recordings reveal that the trio withheld a key sheriff’s department report from 1984 because it offered what they allegedly described as an “ironclad alibi.” They said the report should be withheld because if they offered it to defense attorneys, “(Willoughby) would walk.”

They also talked to Gehlhausen about concerns about being sanctioned for failure to turn over the evidence. They each admitted as much to jurors in February.

“As documented by the recordings, the Defendants knew the exculpatory nature of the evidence and that they were required to disclose it, but instead decided to unconstitutionally withhold the exculpatory evidence in violation of Mr. Willoughby’s Constitutional rights,” the lawsuit says.

The city of Tea hired Ketterhagen in 2010, shortly after Willoughby’s initial conviction. Gehlhausen didn’t turn over the recordings to Willoughby’s defense team until June 2011, after the Wyoming Supreme Court affirmed his conviction.

Tea mayor John Lawler did not return a call for comment Monday night, but last week he and council member Herman Otten both called Ketterhagen’s resignation a personnel issue.

Ketterhagen replaced former chief Ken Haugen.

Haugen was demoted and then unsuccessfully ran for Lincoln County Sheriff shortly before being fired from the Tea Police Department. He sued the city of Tea in 2011, claiming he’d been unfairly pushed out by Lawler, but that case was dismissed in September.